Deputy chief constable (DCC) is the second highest rank in all territorial police forces in the United Kingdom (except the Metropolitan Police, in which the equivalent rank is deputy assistant commissioner, and City of London Police, in which the equivalent rank is assistant commissioner, both of which wear the same insignia as a DCC). The British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, and the Isle of Man Constabulary each also has a DCC.
Until 2006, each force could only have one DCC, who would normally be second-in-command to the chief constable. However, Schedule 2 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 amended the Police Act 1996 to permit more than one DCC within each force. However, as yet no force has had more than one DCC at any one time.
The DCC ranks above the assistant chief constables. The role of the DCC varies from force to force. In some smaller forces (usually those with only a single ACC or no ACC), they take responsibility for territorial policing, but in most forces the role covers corporate functions including professional standards.
The rank of deputy chief constable was abolished on 1 April 1995 following recommendations made in the Sheehy Report, except for officers already holding the rank, although most forces continued to designate one of the ACCs as "designated deputy" to the chief constable. The Home Office officially reintroduced the rank on 1 January 2002.
Read more about Deputy Chief Constable: Insignia
Famous quotes containing the words deputy, chief and/or constable:
“The only law was that enforced by the Creek Lighthorsemen and the U.S. deputy marshals who paid rare and brief visits; or the “two volumes of common law” that every man carried strapped to his thighs.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. relief program (1935-1943)
“American family life has never been particularly idyllic. In the nineteenth century, nearly a quarter of all children experienced the death of one of their parents.... Not until the sixties did the chief cause of separation of parents shift from death to divorce.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“I do love thee as each flower
Loves the sun’s life-giving power,
For, dead, thy breath to life might move me.”
—Henry Constable (1562–1613)